After this, it doesn’t seem like a bad idea to have a Spanish truck-maker build sports cars.
Since the 1886 birth of the Benz Patent Motorwagen, a lot of cars have been produced and rolled onto the streets. It’s not surprising that some names are lost in this automobile history of 132 years. The Pegaso Z102 is one such name that’s not well-known.
Pegaso, a well-known Spanish coach-maker and truck manufacturer, began its production in 1946. The 1950s brought with them the idea of building a sports car. Their logo was a sort of prancing horse. Wait, what?
Although it may seem unlikely that a truck company would make high-performance vehicles like the Pegaso Z-102, this is exactly what Pegaso did. Only 86 cars were produced during the Z-102’s seven-year production run from 1951 to 1958. Petrolicious managed to obtain a working and running Z-102.
The Z-102 is a GT that can be considered one of the most innovative and highly-performing of all time. It can travel up to 120 mph with its 360-horsepower, four-cam all alloy V8 engine. The car was also available with an optional supercharged version, which enabled it to reach speeds up to 151 mph. This made it the fastest production car in the world at that time.
Although the Z-102’s body was made from alloy, it was quite heavy and therefore racing was not part of its assets. Although it entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1953 with Juan Jover as its driver, he was injured in an accident which left him with injuries to his left leg. Pegaso provided him with a Z-102 right-hand-drive Z-102 for racing purposes, but not for everyday use. Rafael Pueche is currently the owner of this particular unit. Only a handful of Z-102s were built. Now, that’s rarity.